Time for Pumpkin Pie

Here's a shocking admission: I've never made pie from scratch. I know, the horror! Anyway, for Thanksgiving, my parents have asked me to bring a couple of desserts: cake (I'm going with a cranberry walnut cake with maple frosting), and -- you guessed it -- pumpkin pie.

I don't know why, but I'm very intimidated by the prospect of making pie dough from scratch. So for my pie test run, I turned to one of my favorite sites for a recipe: Pâte Brisée from Simply Recipes. The recipe is easy, but requires a food processor, which thankfully I have. And it makes a wonderful, tasty pie dough.

For my pie test run, I decided to make mini pumpkin pies. I sprayed a cupcake tin with some PAM for baking, and rolled out the dough to about 1/8" thick. I then used a large round cookie cutter to cut out the dough, and pressed each disc gently into the cupcake tin cups. I managed to [just barely] squeeze 12 discs out of 1 recipe of dough, with a little left over to make a garnish out of.


Here's the recipe I used for the filling:

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and pour into the unbaked pie shells. Bake at about 350˚F for 20-25 minutes.

I think next time I make this I'll use an egg wash on the dough tops to encourage browning. I'm eager to try this in a full 9-inch pie form next week. Wish me luck!